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Process & Practices

In-App Subscriptions Made Easy

There are various types of subscriptions: recurring, non-recurring, free-trial periods, various billing cycles and any possible billing variation one can imagine. But with lack of information online, you might discover that mobile subscriptions behave differently from what you expected. This article will make your life somewhat easier when addressing an in-app subscriptions implementation.

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Enterprise Architecture

EIP Designer: Bridging the Gap Between EA and Development

This article presents the EIP Designer project, an Eclipse-based tool for introducing integration patterns into an EA design, providing fluidity and continuity while filling the gap existing between EA practices and concrete software development.

Worth Repeating: The BigBook Technique

In 1994 the Standish Group reported an appalling 31% of software projects failing, a number which does not include "challenged" projects delivered late or overbudget. The 2004 10th Anniversary CHAOS Report showed a 50% decrease in this figure. Still, this 16% failure rate was estimated to have cost $80 billion in wasted development effort, almost a third of total development spending.

In the wake of yet another big-project implosion, this time Apple's Aperture photo editing software project, Marc Hedlund has trotted out a favourite story, which he says he'll repeat until it's common knowledge (and, presumably, no longer needed).

What he calls The BigBook Technique was a simple ploy used by a group of BigBook engineers to communicate clearly with their CEO about the reality of an impossible death-march project. They used Frederick Brooks' classic book The Mythical Man-Month in a unique and effective manner. Literally: used the book. Or rather, a stack of them.

Brooks wrote, over thirty years ago, about how project management bears only a passing resemblance to abstract math - for example, doubling staff will never deliver a troubled project in half the time. The article quotes what's become known as "Brooks' Law":

Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.

It's a lesson business are are still, unfortunately, learning the hard way. This book is considered by many to be standard reading for project managers - the 20th anniversary edition published in 1995 added 4 new chapters to the original text. If all this is hitting very close to home: a second notable book for those who would rescue a project in deep trouble is Death March by Edward Yourdon.